Yanukovych: I did not give the order to shoot

Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych said in an interview with the BBC that he did not give the order to open fire on protest shares. At the same time, he admitted that he did not have enough effort in order to prevent bloodshed.

“I didn’t give any orders. These are not my powers, firstly. Secondly, I publicly said that I am against the use of force, especially shooting. I am against bloodshed, I constantly talked about it. But. Law enforcement officials performed their duties in accordance with the laws of the existing ones, so they had the right to use weapons in cases where it was provided for by law and in what cases they applied it and in which they did not apply it and in which they did not apply it. They used - I have no these facts, ”said Yanukovych. At the same time, he assigned responsibility for the death of people to the leaders of the Euromaidan.

“Today, when so much time has passed - for a year and a half - today the Ukrainians realized that the authorities and the president were not interested in these executions, but those ... radicals were interested, those, I would say, criminals who decided to seize power in this way,” the ex -president emphasized.

Yanukovych said that the Ukrainian authorities actually do not investigate events in the Euromaidan. Moreover, according to him, all evidence is destroyed.

The ex-president considers the prospect of the return of Crimea to Ukraine is not too realistic. According to him, 90 percent of the inhabitants of the peninsula voted for leaving Ukraine because of the "radical nationalist movement that scared the Crimean population."

Donbass must remain in Ukraine, said Yanukovych. To do this, you need to fulfill the Minsk agreements and find compromises, the ex-president believes. He called on the West to put pressure on Kyiv so that the Ukrainian authorities began direct negotiations with the leaders of the DPR and LPR.

This was the first interview with Yanukovych to the Western media after his flight to Russia. The ex-president noted that he spends most of his time in Rostov, but "forced to move around Russia." Due to the threat of life, he is constantly accompanied by security.

In February 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia after the victory of the revolution. In Ukraine, cases have already been initiated against him under nine articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, including articles on the murder and on the usurpation of power . In January 2015, Interpol declared the former head of state on an international wanted list on charges of corruption .

In February, the Verkhovna Radadeprived Yanukovych of the title of president . The current president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko sent a document to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance with the Basic Law. This is done so that in the future this act could not be appealed in any court - neither in Ukraine nor abroad, the administration of the Ukrainian president noted.